'How I Met Your Mother' Alum Joins ABC's 'Keep Calm and Karey On'

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Ashley Williams

Ashley Williams is boarding another comedy.

our editor recommends

TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide to What Lives, Dies and Still Has a Pulse

The How I Met Your Mother alum has replaced Majandra Delfino in ABC's comedy pilot Keep Calm and Karey On, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.  

The comedy centers on Karey (Kelly Preston), the clean-nosed black sheep in a family of petty thieves, drug addicts and narcissists. When her brother is sent to prison, she decides to raise his kids along with her adopted African-American son and give them the normal lives they deserve.

PHOTOS: The Faces of Pilot Season 2013

Williams, who played Ted's ex Victoria ("cupcake girl") on HIMYM, will play Penny, Karey's self-centered and clueless sister, a singer-songwriter with questionable taste.

Accidentally on Purpose's Andrea Abbate will pen the comedy for 20th Television, with Shawn Levy, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements on board to exec produce. Gail Mancuso will direct the single-camera comedy.

Jane Seymour, Ella Anderson, Steve Talley and Isaac White co-star in the comedy, which has also added Haley Lu Richardson as Destiny, Karey's teenage niece, whom she adopts.

Williams, whose sister Kimberly Williams-Paisley plays other woman Peggy Samper on ABC's Nashville, is repped by Gersh and Luber Roklin. She starred opposite Mark Feuerstein on NBC's 2002 comedy Good Morning, Miami, and has had a string of guest-star arcs on such shows as Feuerstein's Royal Pains in the years since.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit